• Etterra
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    15
    ·
    2 days ago

    The can on “cruel and unusual punishment” had always been a farce.

    • NauticalNoodle@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      edit-2
      2 days ago

      It is said that it has to be both {cruel && unusual} simultaneously to be unconstitutional. The more they carry out these “new methods” like nitrogen gassing the more ‘usual’ it becomes.

      • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        2 days ago

        well no, nitrogen gassings aren’t “cruel”, they’re novel.

        What they mean when they say cruel and unusual is some shit like strapping a guy into a 2007 camry, sending it down a mountain into a fucking lake, until he drowns.

          • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            24 hours ago

            no, it’s just an example of something that would be considered both cruel, and unusual punishment, to provide a sufficient example.

            You can’t just look at something like nitrogen gassing and go “its cruel because it’s killing someone, and also unusual because it isn’t utilized often” It has to be literally cruel, as in, you shouldn’t do it period (general US laws would forbid it kind of a thing) and unusual in the sense that you would literally never do it.

        • NauticalNoodle@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          edit-2
          2 days ago

          Oh, hypothetically speaking, I’m not even certain that would qualify as cruel & unusual anymore if they were to run out of alternatives.